(New York,
September 22, 2010) - The Vietnamese government should promptly open thorough
and transparent investigations into a series of deaths caused by the use of
lethal force by policemen and hold the responsible officers accountable, Human
Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch has documented 19 incidents of reported police brutality,
resulting in the deaths of 15 people, all reported in the state-controlled press
in Vietnam during the last 12 months. The Vietnamese government should publicly
recognize this problem, issue orders outlawing abusive treatment by police at
all levels, and make clear that any police officers found responsible for such
practices will face disciplinary action and, where appropriate, criminal
prosecution, Human Rights Watch said.

“Police brutality is being reported at an alarming rate in every region of
Vietnam, raising serious concerns that these abuses are both systemic and
widespread,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

In some cases, detainees died after beatings inflicted while they were in the
custody of the police or civil defense forces (dan phong). In other
instances, victims were killed in public areas when police used what appears to
have been excessive force. Many of these incidents provoked public protests
throughout Vietnam during the past year.

Deaths of people in police custody or at the hands of police have been
reported in provinces in the far north such as Bac Giang and Thai Nguyen, in
major cities such as Hanoi and Da Nang, in Quang Nam along the central coast, in
the remote highland province of Gia Lai, and in the southern provinces of Hau
Giang and Binh Phuoc.

In many cases, those killed in detention were being held for minor
infractions. For example, on June 30, 2010, Vu Van Hien of Thai Nguyen died in
police custody after being detained following a dispute with his mother. An
autopsy revealed that he died due to severe bleeding in the brain and that he
had suffered multiple injuries, including a broken jawbone and broken ribs.

Three weeks later, on July 23, public protests erupted in Bac Giang in response
to the death of 21-year-old Nguyen Van Khuong. He died just hours after being
taken into police custody for riding a motorcycle without a helmet.

Local media coverage of these events has been uneven, raising continuing
concerns about government control of the press in Vietnam. In some instances,
media reports have led to investigations of police brutality cases that had
previously been covered up. For example, a series of articles published by the
newspaper Family and Society in February prompted the Justice Department
in Hai Duong province to request further investigation into the suspicious death
in custody of Dang Trung Trinh on November 28, 2009, which police had dismissed
previously as a “death due to illness.”

On the other hand, there has been almost no local coverage of other key
cases, such as the death of Nguyen Thanh Nam at Con Dau Parish in Da Nang. After
participating in a funeral procession in Con Dau on May 4 to a cemetery located
on disputed land slated for development by the government, Nam was summoned,
interrogated, and beaten by Da Nang police several times. On July 2, Nam was
severely beaten while in custody of the local civil defense force and left bound
in a remote field. He died at home from his injuries on July 3.

Local residents who responded to telephone queries from Radio Free Asia said
they were afraid to talk about the Con Dau case, especially the cause of Nam’s
death. Government authorities have denied police culpability, stating that Nam
died from a stroke. The official explanation has been rejected by members of
Nam’s family, including his older brother in testimony before the US Congress on
August 18.

“Rather than silencing the media or allowing journalists to publish only
when given a green light, the Vietnamese government should step back and permit
investigative reporting into these matters,” Robertson said. “Independent
journalism can help bring to light abuses that local police and authorities hope
to sweep under the carpet.”

In the 19 incidents of police brutality documented since September 2009,
there are no reports that police officers were convicted by a court for their
actions. In the majority of cases, higher officials have imposed minor
punishments such as requiring offending officers to apologize to the victim’s
family, accept transfer to another unit, or write a report about the incident
for review by superiors.

In the few cases in which offending police officers have been suspended
and/or detained pending investigations, such as the case in Bac Giang, the
result appears to have been a response to pressure from public demonstrations
against police brutality and exposés on independent internet sites that feature
incriminating accounts by witnesses, photographs, videos, and blog reports.

“Many of these disturbing cases are no secret, and it is up to government
ministries and Vietnam’s National Assembly to investigate,” Robertson said.
“Until police get the message from all levels of government that they will be
punished, there is little to stop them from this abusive behavior, including
beating people to death.”

* September 9, 2010: Tran Ngoc Duong, 52, died in police custody at the
People’s Committee headquarters in Thanh Binh commune, Trang Bom district, Dong
Nai province a few hours after he was detained for a minor dispute with his
neighbor. The police told his family that he had committed suicide by hanging
himself. His wife expressed doubts that suicide was the cause of death. She said
that Duong was found dead sitting down, with a leather belt around his neck and
no marks on his neck. The case is reportedly under investigation.

*
August 8, 2010:
Tran Duy Hai, 32, died in police custody in Hau Giang province after his
arrest a day earlier on suspicion of snatching a woman’s gold necklace. On
August 12, Hau Giang’s provincial police chief announced that an autopsy had
determined that Hai had committed suicide by hanging. Within hours of the death
the body had been cremated, preventing further investigation.No information has appeared in the media regarding whether
officials have responded to complaints filed by the family with the provincial
police and justice departments.

*
August 6, 2010:
Hoang Thi Tra, 20, was shot and injured by undercover traffic police in Thai
Nguyen province while riding on the back of her boyfriend’s motorcycle. Two
undercover police on a motorcycle chased the couple, who were riding without
helmets, and shot Tra in the thigh after the motorcycle capsized and fell over.
Tra underwent a five-hour operation to remove the bullet. After widespread
public outcry, on August 11 police officials announced the three-month
suspension of a police lieutenant, one of the officers involved in the shooting,
pending further investigation. The deputy provincial police chief, Colonel
Nguyen Nhu Tuan, told Nong Nghiep: “Many people know about and witnessed
this incident; therefore it cannot be hidden or covered up.”

* July
30, 2010: After
Nguyen Van Trung, 46, engaged in a minor verbal conflict in a restaurant
with a commune-level police officer in Binh Thuan province, the officer called
the civil defense force (dan phong), a voluntary security force under the
authority of village People’s Committees that often collaborates with local
police. Four civil defense force members arrived and beat Trung repeatedly on
his head and back with clubs until he was unconscious. Members of the defense
force then took him on a motorbike to police headquarters, where he was
handcuffed. Police officers “cursed, kicked, and hit him,” causing him to “spit
blood,” Phap Luat reported. After Trung’s family arrived at the police
station and loudly protested, police allowed them to take Trung to the local
hospital’s emergency room. He had multiple bruises and contusions all over his
back and stomach, a black eye, and cuts on his head that required stitches.
Phap Luat reported that on August 1, the chief and deputy commune police
chief visited Trung in the hospital. They pressured his wife not to file a
complaint about the case, promised to pay his medical bills, and offered to
secure an apology from the offending police officers.

* July
23, 2010: Nguyen Van Khuong,
21, was beaten to death in police custody after being detained for a traffic
violation by police in Tan Yen district, Bac Giang province. After massive
protests in Bac Giang, a police officer was arrested for “causing death while
carrying out official duties” under penal code article 97. Three other officers
were suspended from duty for further investigation, but no further information
has appeared in the media about the status of the investigation.

* July
21, 2010: Police
from La Phu commune, Hoai Duc district, Hanoi – including the deputy chief of
the commune police - stopped Nguyen Phu Son’s truck, dragged him
out of the vehicle, and beat him repeatedly with electric shock batons on his
head and body. Phap Luat & Xa Hoi reported that Son’s father went to the
police station and saw his son “handcuffed with bruises all over his face. The
deputy chief of police told him, ‘I am on duty therefore I have the right to
beat your son. I dare you to file a claim. Go ahead and file a claim wherever
you want…’” He was admitted to a hospital the next day, NhaBao & Cong
Luan reported, and Son’s medical file reported that his entire body was
“covered with bruises, especially on the lower rib area; [and there are] several
head and chest injuries from a severe beating the day before.” Afterward, the
deputy chief of the commune police who participated in the beating was asked to
report on the case to his superiors. There is no information as to whether any
other investigatory steps have been taken.

* July
3,2010:
Nguyen Thanh Nam, 43, died after being beaten in Da Nang by police and
members of the local civil defense force (dan phong). In articles
published by Vietnam News Agency and other official state media, the Da Nang
Religious Affairs Committee and other provincial authorities rejected as
“completely false” reports that Nam was beaten to death by security forces,
stating that he had died at home from a stroke. Nam had been one of the members
of the funeral assistance team during a controversial funeral procession on May
4 to the Con Dau Parish cemetery, located on a piece of land that the government
has slated for use as an economic development zone. During the funeral, police
used truncheons and electric shock batons to beat people in the procession and
arrested more than 60 persons, according to participants interviewed by Radio
Free Asia afterward. Most of those arrested were subsequently released. In
mid-May, six of those who had been detained were charged with opposing law
enforcement officers and disturbing public order. Nam, who was beaten badly by
police on two occasions after being summoned to the police station for
questioning, went into hiding on July 2 to avoid being summoned again. He was
apprehended that night by the civil defense force, who tied him up and took him
to a nearby rice field. When his wife arrived, she found him bound and covered
in mud and blood. He died at his house as a result of his injuries. To date,
there has been no report of any investigation being carried out into the
killing.

* June
30, 2010: Vu Van Hien,
40, died two days after being arrested and detained at the police headquarters
in Dai Tu District, Thai Nguyen Province. Phap Luat reported that when
the police took Hien to the district hospital on June 29, he was in a coma and
suffering from multiple injuries. The victim’s brother-in-law told Phap Luat
that “at the Dai Tu hospital, I found Hien unconscious, his mouth full of blood,
his limbs bruised and scratched.” An autopsy revealed that he had a broken jaw,
fractured skull, blood clots in his lungs, four broken ribs, and a broken
shinbone. By the time he was transferred to the provincial hospital, Hien had
stopped breathing and was pronounced dead. While the police stated that Hien had
a ‘neurological disorder’ and had hit his head twice on the wall of the
detention facility, Phap Luat stated in its July 26 edition that the
newspaper’s “own investigation suggested that it
was most likely he had been beaten to death.” Lao Dong newspaper,
which reconfirmed the findings of the autopsy and checked Hien’s hospital files,
concluded in an article on August 13 that “Given these injuries, it is certain
that Vu Van Hien was beaten to death.” As of late September, there was no
information about any police officers being held legally accountable for the
death.

* June
7, 2010: Responding
to a report of a burglary, two police officers beat to death Nguyen Phu Trung,
41, in Thuy Xuan Tien village, Chuong My district, Hanoi. According to articlesin VN Express and VTC News, the police officers,
along with two civilians, beat Trung with an electric baton, a padlock, and a
wooden club and then dumped him by the side of the road, where villagers found
him the next day. One month later, four people, including the two police
officers involved in the beating, were arrested and placed under investigation.

* May
25, 2010: A police
officer shot and killed Le Xuan Dung, 12, and shot and wounded
Le Huu Nam, 43, who died five days later, and wounded Le Thi Thanh,
37, during a protest over land rights at Nghi Son Petrochemical
Refinery in Thanh Hoa province, government media and the BBC and Radio
Free Asia reported. An article about the incident that
was posted online the day after the shooting on the official government website
Thanh Tra was later removed. On May 28, provincial authorities announced
that one police officer would be arrested and prosecuted for “causing death
while carrying out his duty,” and that investigations would also be carried out
regarding criminal acts committed by the protesters.

* May
7, 2010: Vo Van Khanh,
29, died while held at police headquarters in Dien Ban district, Quang Nam
province, government media and the BBC reported. During a routine traffic check
a few days earlier, police confiscated Khanh’s motorcycle because he was not
carrying the proper paperwork. On May 7, Khanh went to the police station to
retrieve his motorcycle. Later that day, police called his family to inform them
that Khanh was dead, claiming he had hanged himself with his shoelaces
after being taken into police custody for suspected theft. His family attributes
Khanh’s death to an assault by police, noting that when his body was returned to
them, they found that his ribs were broken, his face was scratched, and there
were bruises on his chest and rib cage, and shoeprints on his body. Autopsies
performed by Quang Nam and Da Nang authorities claimed the cause of death was
suicide, and said that bruises came from rescue efforts and that the broken ribs
occurred during the autopsy. According to a May 9 article in Nguoi Lao Dong,
the police said Khanh’s injuries were caused by emergency medical procedures to
save his life. Khanh’s family rejected the official explanation and refused to
accept the autopsies. More than four months later, there have been no reports of
any police officers being held accountable or even placed under investigation in
regard to Khanh’s death.

* April
24, 2010: Police in
Ba Ria-Vung Tau province summoned Pham Tuan Hung, 37, for questioning on
suspicion of stealing a cell phone. At the station, “police used handcuffs to
handcuff him to the window and used batons to beat him many times, until he
fainted,” Phap Luat reported. At 2 a.m. police
released Hung. “Upon returning home with a bruised body and in a panic,
Hung was bedridden and did not eat anything,” Phap Luat reported. When
Hung - who is an epileptic - did not get
better, but continued to bleed from his nose and mouth and suffer from many
nightmares and seizures, he sought treatment at a hospital in Dong Nai. Lao
Dong reported that he was admitted to the hospital “with signs of head
injuries and many other flesh wounds; he was in a panic and almost had a mental
breakdown.” Commune officials apologized to the family and paid for some of his
medical bills. District authorities said that the police officers who carried
out the beating would be “dealt with according to regulations,” according to
Nguoi Lao Dong. There have been no further reports in the media on this
case.

* April
24, 2010: A traffic
policeman and a commune policeman in Khanh Hoa chased and severely beat Huynh
Tan Nam, 21, for not wearing a helmet and left him by side of the road in a
“severely critical condition” with multiple injuries, VN Express and
other government media sources reported. He had a severe neck injury, a bruised
right temple bone, a broken sphenoid bone, a broken right cheekbone, and torn
ligaments. Dien Khanh district police later gave the victim’s family some money
to defray medical fees. The traffic police officer remained on the police force
but was transferred from traffic control to other duties. There has been no
information in the media as to whether the commune policeman involved in the
beating was ever disciplined in any way.

*
January 21, 2010: Nguyen Quoc Bao,
33, died in detention at the police headquarters in Hai Ba Trung District,
Hanoi. Government media sources, including VN Express and Lao Dong,
reported that the Army Forensic Agency performed an examination and found
that Nguyen Quoc Bao had severe head injuries and multiple wounds on his wrists
and ankles at the time of his death. On March 27, Lao Dong published an
article entitled, “While in Police Detention: The Victim Died from Being Beaten
on the Head.” Seven police officers were suspended, pending further
investigation, though eight months later there had been no reports as to whether
any of the officers had been arrested or charged in connection with the incident.

*
December 22, 2009: Nguyen Van Long,
41, died while in police custody in Bom Bo commune, Bu Dang district, Binh Phuoc
province. Government media sources reported that when Long’s wife visited him at
the police station on the evening he was arrested, he told her he was in pain
after being severely beaten and needed medicine. At the police station the next
morning, she was informed that he had “committed suicide,” the Viet Nam Net
reported. Police officials said they interrogated Long on December 22 but
stopped when he did not confess, according to VN Express. The next
morning, police found Long dead, Phap Luat TP HCM reported. On December
23, hundreds of people gathered at the commune People’s Committee office in
protest. Nine months later, the case reportedly remains under investigation.

*
November 28, 2009: Dang Trung Trinh,
32, died shortly after being arrested and held by police after a conflict with
his cousin in Tien Dong commune, Tu Ky district, Hai Duong province. The police
announced that Trinh died from liver disease, but a forensic examination
conducted by the district forensic team in the presence of district police and a
member of the victim’s family showed that his ribs were broken and there were
bruises all over his body, Dan Tri reported. On January 22, 2010, the
district police decided not to prosecute the case. However, after a series of
articles in Gia Dinh & Xa Hoi, the Tu Ky District Justice Department
overruled the decision. On June 30, the district police investigation bureau
issued Decision 27/QĐ to prosecute the case for “illegal arrest and detention,”
not for manslaughter, though state media accounts do not specify who was to be
prosecuted.

*
November 21, 2009: Nguyen Manh Hung,
33, died in police detention in Ha Dong District, Hanoi. He had been held
incommunicado for 11 days, from November 10. The police said that on the day of
his death Hung had chest pains and difficulty breathing, so they took him to the
hospital, VN Express reported. The police said Hung died in the hospital,
although the hospital director said he was dead on arrival, VN Express
reported. Hung’s father said his son’s body was “completely dry, all ten fingers
and toes were bruised… and swelling and bruises covered one third of his leg,”
VN Express reported. The police investigation bureau in Hanoi
rejected a complaint filed by the victim’s father stating that police had
unlawfully arrested Hung, failed to report his detention, and caused his death
by torturing him. Citing the forensic report and Hung’s cellmates, who reported
there were no signs of him being tortured, the police investigation bureau
concluded that Hung died from heart failure.

*
September 14-17, 2009 (two deaths): Tran Minh Sy, 23, died on September 17 while in police detention in Gia Lai province.
He was among the more than 75 people arrested the previous day, when thousands
gathered to protest the death of Pham Ngoc Den, 29, on September 14 while
being chased by traffic police in Gia Lai for not wearing a helmet. The
police claimed that Tran Minh Sy died from heart and lung diseases, Tuoi Tre
reported. Eight police officers later received reprimands orwarnings for
their behavior during the protests in Gia Lai, but no one on the police force
was punished for the death in custody of Tran Minh Sy or
the death of Pham Ngoc Den, which sparked the protests. Instead, 15
protesters were sentenced to prison in May 2010.